Fedora 13 Beta was just released a few hours ago. Named Goddard, the final version of Fedora 13 will sport many new features such as KDE 4.4, latest builds of the XFCE environment and Sugar Learning Environment apart from the usual bug fixes and functionality additions.

If you are looking for the bigger catch, wait up for the final release in the middle of May this year. For those restless, download the beta iso from here. And of course, if you don’t know your way around bugs and geeky mosquitoes, don’t download this. The Beta is presumably the last crucial milestone of Fedora 13, and as such, only critical bugs will be fixed now for the coming final release.

The Beta has a number of new features, such as automatic print driver installation with the help of PackageKit; new software such as ShotWell photo manager, Pino microblogging client; NetworkManager improvements over bluetooth and mobile broadband connectivity; support for the latest iPods and iPhones and 3D graphics support backed solely by open source drivers.

That’s not all. There’s also better color management: so your documents bear the same color on screen and on paper. Also, the user management portal has been completely redesigned for easier access and use.

The above is the feature-list that may interest the end user, Fedora 13 has got several goodies for both developers and administrators as well. Developers get easier Python debugging when using gdb and support for NetBeans Java EE 6 among other features. For sys admins, there’s quite a few improvements with BFO (allows users to download a single, tiny image and install current and future versions of Fedora without having to download additional images), SSSD (provides expanded features for logging into managed domains), IPv6 support, support for Zarafa Groupware (Microsoft Exchange alternative) among others. Check out a detailed feature list here.

Keshav Khera is a young freelance writer from India. Alongside writing for the web, he also attends school and tries not to bunk classes. He keeps interest in music, table tennis, reading and of course, twitter (@keshav)